Different Political Ideologies “Liberalism originates in the 17 th century but had its first defining moment during the French Revolution (1789), when the French society fought against the oppression of the monarchy to gain more freedom.” 6. Different Political Ideologies Especially in Europe, the historical evolution of social democracy has taken place under democratic competition with other political ideologies. In the course of time, clear differences but also similarities became obvious. To understand one ideology it is necessary to examine it(at least shortly) in the context of others. It is important to keep in mind that such simplistic classifications show only the surface of such highly complex political concepts. In addition, the theoretical concepts and especially their implementation vary strongly from country to country, from party to party, and from individual to individual. Liberalism The word goes back to the Latin'liber', which means'free'. Liberalism originates in the 17 th century but had its first defining moment during the French Revolution(1789), when the French society fought against the oppression of the monarchy to gain more freedom. Until today the core value of Liberalism is freedom. As this happens to be one of the values of social democracy as well, one could mean that the two ideologies are not that different. And indeed, West European liberal parties have cooperated with social democratic parties several times. If such political cooperation is possible, it mainly depends on the parties' interpretation of the concept of 'freedom' and the concrete policies that result from it. Discussion points that often lead to discrepancies are: Is the freedom of speech secured, if nobody is hindered to say what he/she thinks? Or is it only freedom of speech, if the access to media is not reserved for a few but available for everyone? The understanding of the concept of'equality' also often prevents cooperation between liberals and social democrats and is even reason for a heated discussion within liberalism. A central discussion point is: should the state distribute goods suitable to the situation of every individual, or is it more equal if everyone gets the same opportunity? Different answers to this question create variants of liberalism.'Classical liberalism' argues that it is unequal if the state distributes advantages in an unequal way. Sounds logical?'Social liberalism' takes the view that a poor person should receive more state support than a millionaire. In the last few decades, the European liberalists tend to distance themselves from a social interpretation of freedom and equality. Liberal politics usually focus on economy and emphasizes the free market and the freedom of enterprise, which is believed to create equality of opportunity within the society. To list a number of fundamental assumptions of the liberal approach: 34